• Effie Awards: It's a honey-bunny win for Lowe Lintas

    MUMBAI: It was a night of many firsts for the Effie Awards, 2013.

  • Karans back with hot Koffee

    MUMBAI: Those who missed their weekly fix of caffeine for the past two years, fret not!

  • M&A Guidelines to be finalised by EGoM later this month

    NEW DELHI: The much-awaited Merger and Acquisition (M&A) Guidelines has got further delayed and now the Empowered

  • Who wants to be an entrepreneur?

    Submitted by ITV Production on Oct 23

    MUMBAI: If you think you?ve got an idea worth a million bucks, here?s something that might just help you make it a reality.

    ?Built from Scratch?, founder and CEO Magnon/TBWA Vineet Bajpai?s second book, serves as a guide for aspiring entrepreneurs - handholding them through various steps and tactics of building a business ground-up.

    The most important differentiator is that I am preaching only what I have practiced says Vineet Bajpai

    There?s a message in the title itself for budding businessmen/women: Pick up basic tools and start building a company with whatever little you have. At the end of the day, every organisation is created out of one dominant ingredient - the human will.

    Asked what made him pen the tome, Bajpai says: ?The thought of writing the book came to my mind many years ago when I used to teach at MBA institutions as guest faculty. During my interactions with management students, I discovered that almost every one of them secretly nurtured the dream of becoming an entrepreneur and building his/her company. However, most were clueless on how to actually start their entrepreneurial journey.?

     ?More importantly, there existed a deeply entrenched belief that a business can be started only with large financial investment. Being a first-generation entrepreneur myself, who started with a few thousand rupees in my pocket, I felt compelled to offer a helping hand to perhaps millions of such people who dream of building businesses and companies, but have no practical guidance for the same. I also noticed that there were no books written by Indian authors that offered detailed and street-smart advice on enterprise building. It was then that I decided to write my second book.?

    With a million self-help books on the market already, why would readers pick up one more such book? ?The most important differentiator is that I am preaching only what I have practiced,? says Bajpai, recalling how he started Magnon/TBWA and Magnon E-Graphics with the rupee equivalent of just $300.

     

    ?Today, these are multi-million dollar global companies. So very few authors would have the real and ?battle-field? experience that I carry; secondly, the book is as much a motivational read as it is a management work. It speaks to the reader about his/her fears and dreams, his/her mental-barriers and his/her ambitions. The combination of a self-help approach with hard-core management content makes the book quite an intellectual asset for any aspiring entrepreneur,? he shoots.

    The book busts quite a few myths associated with career management as seen through the eyes of the Indian middle class.

    ?It tells the reader that he can do it too! And then it educates the reader about various aspects of starting up businesses - the idea generation, market research, environment scanning, revenue model, finance raising options, go-to-market strategies, the common pitfalls, first year of survival and a lot more. It is quite a hard-hitting and real handbook for aspiring entrepreneurs,? defends Bajpai.

    The book is inclusive of everyone who nurtures business ambitions, even say the aunty next door who cooks great south Indian food and could open a catering venture. ?Entrepreneurship is not a restricted zone, and anyone and everyone can dream of being a successful entrepreneur. So the book aims to reach out to the student community, to working professionals, corporate executives and almost anyone who is planning to start his or her own venture,? says Bajpai.

    What lies at the heart of the book is Bajpai?s own experience of founding and building his companies. ?Readers will see that while I lead global companies today, I started in a tiny shed with rented computers, a tin roof and at times, even swept the floor of my first office! They will discover how a company where buying even a water cooler was a major financial decision at one time, transformed into one of Asia?s largest digital agencies. It is a fantastic yet true story that the readers will love,? says he.

    Moral of the story is if you don?t hail from a business family, aren?t a Harvard dropout and don?t have a globe-changing innovation, you can still dream of making it large, with a little help from Bajpai?s book, published by Jaico and available for just Rs 299.

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  • Carat Fresh Integrated celebrates three successful years of operation in India

    Submitted by ITV Production on May 24

    Mumbai: Carat Fresh Integrated, an integrated experiential marketing agency from the Aegis Media group completes three years of operation in India on 21st May ?12. The agency which started 3 years back as a modest eight people team has since grown leaps and bounds. Carat Fresh Integrated has extended its presence to Delhi, Bengaluru and Chennai apart from Mumbai and has further plans of expansion in Ahmedabad and Kolkata as well. With the India chapter already in place, the agency is now aiming for international presence.

    Commenting on the same, Ashish Bhasin, Chairman India & CEO South East Asia Aegis Media, said ?Carat Fresh Integrated has become an essential part of the Aegis Media offering. It has completely integrated its experiential marketing portfolio in India and is now aiming at further geographical expansion. ?

    With focus on brand integration strategy, the agency has recently added verticals to further boost up its integrated service offering which includes brand promotions through activations and events, Rural Marketing and PR. Recently launched branded entertainment services add up to entertainment portfolio of the agency. With integration being the need of the hour, Carat Fresh Integrated has expanded its PR portfolio to provide one-stop solution to its clients. The agency is also setting up a dedicated rural marketing team in Mumbai as well as Delhi.

    Commenting on the same, Sidharth Ghosh, Vice President, Carat Fresh Integrated said ?Carat Fresh has geared up to provide integrated experiential marketing solutions to clients including film integration & celebrity marketing services. Carat Fresh Integrated is also working with some of the best production houses in the country and will soon announce some of its upcoming film marketing projects.?

    Carat Fresh Integrated is redefining industry standards by focusing on research as a tool to introduce science and logic to experiential marketing industry. The agency is investing on building research tools which will give further insights into efficient planning that will help clients further enhance their customer- brand engagement.

    Commenting on the same, Sampath Shenoy, Vice President, Carat Fresh Integrated said ?Research is at the base of efficient planning and redefines how through- the- line communication can be utilized to give positive brand experience to the consumers. Our extensive experience with brands across the industries has inspired us to invest in research tools to give value-add to our clients.?

    Carat Fresh Integrated has worked with some of the best brands across the industry in the last 3 years including Air Asia, Idea, Philips, Tata Chemicals, WHO, MVN University, Nunhems, AkzoNobel India (Dulux Paints), Siyaram?s, Triumph, Tilaknagar Industries, Tanishq, Voltas, Lipton, MAAC, Autodesk, Tanishq to name a few. On the PR front, Triumph, Siyaram?s, FRETTE, Loud Cloud Systems, Veev and designer Sejal Kanoi are some of the brands that came on board Carat Fresh Integrated this year.

    The Aegis Media India group comprises Carat Fresh Integrated (Activation), Vizeum, Posterscope the global OOH sector leader, Brandscope, Hyperspace (Retail), PSI (Airports), Doosra (Creative), Carat, the world?s largest independent media communications specialist, Isobar, the global communications agency with digital at its heart and iProspect, the global leader in search and performance marketing.

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